Alumni Spotlights

Dan Kurland (B.M., Music Performance, 2010) graduated in May with a D.M.A. in collaborative piano studies from The Juilliard School and will join the music staff of Theater Hagen in Hagen, Germany, in August. Over the summer, he will perform at the Aspen Music Festival and with Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance Program.

James Sclater (D.M.A., Music Studies, 1970) won the 2017 Classical Music Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters for his song cycle Carmine Natura Creaturae. 

Luis Rodriguez (B.M., Applied Music/Performance, 2010) has been appointed the assistant conductor for Plano Symphony and Irving Symphony as of January 2016. He also is the new music director for Camerata Dallas Youth orchestra as of April 2017. Photo by Michał Dembiński.

Lucia Unrau (D.M.A., Applied Music, 1992) has been appointed professor of Music and Music Department Chair at Murray State University. She will continue as Camp Keyboard Coordinator at Interlochen Center for the Arts, where she has been a member of the piano faculty since 1993.

Thomas Caneva (M.M., Band and Wind Conducting, 1984), director of bands at Ball State University, conducted the BSU Wind Ensemble in a performance at the College Band Directors National Association National Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition, Caneva was awarded the 2017-18 College of Fine Arts Dean’s Creative Endeavor Award in Music at BSU.

Christopher Diaz (M.M., Music and Human Learning, 2012) was a featured singer in "Folklórico!," the annual collaborative production sponsored by Hancock College in Santa Maria, California. Diaz is a newly appointed professor in the college’s music program.

Austin Ferguson (B.A., Music, 2015) was appointed in February 2017 as carillonneur of the Mayo Clinic. He is only the fourth person to hold this post in the instrument's 89-year history. His duties include performing eight half-hour concerts a week, giving tours and performing for and with local groups and events.

Dylan Morrongiello (B.M., Voice Performance, 2016) will perform this summer in the role of Ali Hakim in Rodgers' and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" at The Glimmerglass Festival as a member of the young artist program.

Mia (Amelia) Theodoratus (B.F.A., Harp Performance, 1990) was appointed to the music faculty of Sarah Lawrence College and Mozartina Conservatory in Tarrytown for the 2016-17 academic year. She is a featured performer in country music legend Jessi Colter’s album The Psalms, released on Sony Heritage. 

Wei He, Butler School of Music alumnus, was named founding artistic director and dean of The Juilliard School’s new Tianjin, China campus. He is a longtime professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and artistic director of the annual San Francisco-Shanghai International Chamber Music Festival and will relocate to China later this year.